President Donald Trump ramped up trade tensions with China over its efforts to undercut U.S. farmers by purchasing soybeans from other nations just two weeks before he is set to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping overseas.
In a Truth Social post on Tuesday afternoon, the president lambasted China’s actions as “economically hostile.”
“I believe that China purposefully not buying our Soybeans, and causing difficulty for our Soybean Farmers, is an Economically Hostile Act,” he wrote. “We are considering terminating business with China having to do with Cooking Oil, and other elements of Trade, as retribution. As an example, we can easily produce Cooking Oil ourselves, we don’t need to purchase it from China.”
It is unclear how China will respond to the post.
The social media post came roughly an hour after the president also dismissed concerns that his $20 billion currency swap with Argentina would undermine U.S. soybean farmers who compete with their Argentine counterparts for market share in China.
Before a bilateral lunch with Argentine President Javier Milei at the White House on Tuesday, Trump was asked by a reporter whether China was trying to “drive a wedge” by buying soybeans from farmers in Argentina and not the U.S.
“It’s China, and it’s natural, but it’s not going to mean anything in the end,” Trump said.
Trump used the lunch to discourage Argentina from entering economic and military agreements with China as he previewed the prospect of a free trade deal with his South American counterpart.
“I don’t think you should be doing business much,” he told Milei. “You can do some trade, but you certainly shouldn’t be doing beyond that, certainly shouldn’t be doing anything having to do with the military, with China, and if that’s what’s happening, I’d be very upset about that.”
Trump’s Argentine bailout, through which the U.S. directly purchased an unspecified amount of Argentine pesos, has angered the likes of Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA).
The Iowa senator has urged the administration to “use leverage at every turn to help [the U.S.’s] hurting farm economy” and that “family farmers [should] be top of mind in negotiations.”
“Farmers VERY upset abt Argentina selling soybeans to China right after USA bail out,” Grassley wrote on X. “Still ZERO USA soybeans sold to China.
“Meanwhile China is still hitting USA w 20% retaliatory tariff,” the senator added. “NEED CHINA TRADE DEAL NOW… [Farmers] need markets 2boost farm economy.”
Earlier this month, Trump claimed that soybean farmers would get a financial break from “a small portion” of the revenue brought in by tariffs.
“We’ve made so much money on Tariffs, that we are going to take a small portion of that money, and help our Farmers,” Trump said on Truth Social on Oct. 1. “I WILL NEVER LET OUR FARMERS DOWN! Sleepy Joe Biden didn’t enforce our Agreement with China, where they were going to purchase Billions of Dollars of our Farm Product, but Soybeans, in particular. It’s all going to work out very well.”
During Trump’s trade war with China, it has boycotted U.S. soybeans after buying more than half the $24.5 billion in U.S. soybean exports in 2024.
That trade war was on the precipice of escalating last week after China announced it would expand its rare earths export controls, sparking the ire of Trump, who threatened to raise levies on Chinese imports to an addtional 100%.
“The United States of America will impose a Tariff of 100% on China, over and above any Tariff that they are currently paying,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Also on November 1st, we will impose Export Controls on any and all critical software. It is impossible to believe that China would have taken such an action, but they have, and the rest is History.”
Trump was set to meet with Xi at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in South Korea later this month, marking their first face-to-face meeting in Trump’s second term, but the president appeared to call off the meeting. However, on Monday, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent signaled the meeting was likely to still happen in an interview with Fox Business Network, claiming that the U.S. and China had “substantially de-escalated” tensions.
TRUMP’S TRADE BATTLE WITH CHINA PUTS US SOYBEAN FARMERS IN PERIL
The comments echo Trump’s conciliatory post to China on Truth Social on Sunday.
“Don’t worry about China, it will all be fine!” Trump wrote. “Highly respected President Xi just had a bad moment. He doesn’t want Depression for his country, and neither do I. The U.S.A. wants to help China, not hurt it!!!”
